Rachel Zegler’s Contempt for Snow White Reflects a Culture That’s Forgotten Fairy Tales -

 But Zegler and Gadot are merely parroting modern talking points about stories that have been with us for centuries. Stories that have stayed with us for centuries. Because they mean something to us. Because they matter. 

‘Snow White’ Goes Snow Woke (dailysignal.com)

 The American Spectator | USA News and Politics  "It’s no longer 1937.” This seems to be Rachel Zegler’s catchphrase when speaking about her role as Snow White in the upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s first animated feature film. She says it with contempt. With raised eyebrows and an eye roll.

"The original film is “extremely dated,” Zegler adds, in a recently resurfaced video from the 2022 D23 Expo. It leaves no room for “women being in roles of power” and is incredibly limited in its depiction of “what a woman is fit for in the world.” In other words, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is trash — horribly outdated and unforgivably anti-feminist. Good thing film historian and fairy tale scholar Rachel Zegler is here to set us straight.

"Zegler, of course, is not a fairy tale scholar, nor is she a film historian — which is a relief. But she is an actress who has been hired to play a role, and, apparently, the entirety of her research into her character’s history can be boiled down to one insightful comment: “It’s no longer 1937.” Thank you for that, Ms. Zegler. We’ll adjust our calendars accordingly.

" 'Sadly, Zegler’s apparent ignorance is common. We, as a culture, have forgotten how to read fairy tales. What’s more, we’ve forgotten that the original Disney princess movies were based on them. It may not be 1937 — the year in which Walt Disney’s groundbreaking film was released — but (shocker!) Disney didn’t write the story of Snow White. It exists within the canon of Western fairy tales made popular by the Brothers Grimm in 1812 and, later in the century, by the likes of Hans Christian Andersen and George MacDonald.

"Fairy tales, we used to understand, are not meant to be taken literally. They are allegories, filled with symbolic elements that weave a metaphorical tapestry to impart universal truths. A dark forest represents inner turmoil, a mirror always reflects the truth, outer beauty is a stand-in for inner goodness, and so on. (You can read much more on this here.) Viewed this way, Snow White — Zegler would be shocked to learn — is a uniquely female story. It’s about women’s bodies and the changes that bring them into adulthood." . . .